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C in English

helo
I just had my interview and my interviewer said "that C in English is going to HURT you a lot"...So now i'm pretty scared....I'm not that terrible in English (my TOEFL is good)...Anyways, does it matter a lot? Does MIT adcom think students MUST do everything well even if it's not something we're interested in or will major in??
thanks

Replies to: C in English

I think perhaps what your interviewer was saying wasn't that a C in a non-technical subject will hurt you, just that a C in general will probably hurt you.

No, MIT doesn't expect that students do everything well -- but in many (highly grade-inflated) high schools, "not doing particularly well but still making an effort" = B. (I literally cannot imagine what I could have done -- or not done -- in high school and gotten a C.)

If there's context which can explain your C -- ie if your high school isn't grade-inflated at all -- it might be good to attach a note explaining this.

how do we know if the grades are inflated? I don't think the grades are inflated at my school...the highest weighted GPA in my class is 4.0 while I see many students on CC getting 4.6's. So i guess it's not inflated, yea?

yea, no one in my English class gets an A. I think it's really not fair..a "B- student" who was in my school (thailand) went to the states and maintained a 3.9 gpa. hmph.. I know colleges kind of have an idea about the grading scheme in each school, but still, there are so many extreme cases

My school averages a 4.5 for virtually all AP tests (none are below 4.0), yet there are MANY more B's than A's. In fact, last year the average score for people who got B's in AP Bio and Euro (two supposedly easy APs) was a 5 (well technically 4.89 or something for over 100 students in each).

On the other hand, a school neighboring me averages about a 3 or so (more 2's than 4's) for people who got A's in most of the AP classes. Go figure...

Grade-inflation wise, my grades are totally deflated, especially with the grading scale being B+ is 90-93 and A is 94-100. So at my new school, all my B+s would be A-'s. Hmph.

Sorry, that doesn't count as deflation. If grades were truly "deflated," you'd see a bell curve distribution of grades in all your classes, including honors and APs. My school had the exact same grading scale and weighting system, yet the average GPA was a 3.7.

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